"YO, CASIMIRO FLORES"

• Published in: The Bilingual review 2010-01, Vol.30 (1/3), p.51-103
• Main Author: WOOD, SILVIANA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actors; Age; Altars; Aztec culture; Barrios; Border patrol; Bullets; Crosses; Culture; Dance; Death & dying; Drums; Halloween; Hospitals; Lighting; Mothers; Music; Nurses; School dropouts; Tequila; Theater; Uto-Aztecan languages; Writers
• ISSN: 0094-5366; 2327-624X

Casimiro Flores: a Yaqui in his late thirties El Coyote: any age Miguel: mid- to late teens Jesús: mid- to late teens Carlos: mid- to late teens Mariel: age fifteen Don Remigio: a Yaqui maestro, very old, strong in appearance and bearing The Hunter/Border Patrol Agent: any age Mictlantecuhtli: costumed and masked, tall, imposing, ageless Calavera Nurse: preferably chubby, in her forties or older Rocky Road: twenty-five Mad Dog: very thin, young teen xochil: fourteen, soon-to-be fifteen Don Prisciliano: old man, in his seventies Allegorical Dangers: boulders, blades, winds, jaguars, and lizards Cantinflas: Need we say more? La Llorona: any age César ChAvez: dignified bearing, in his sixties Ehecatl: costumed and masked, any age María Isabel: chubby, in her seventies El Tanque: an obese, huge teen El Peewa: a runty, skinny teen Also, recorded offstage voices of Manuel, Casimiro's Mother, Xochil's Mother, Mad Dog's Foster Mother, and Rocky's Sugar Daddy. aCT oNE TIME The present, a combined Halloween and Día de los Muertos, but note that Casimiro's dream takes place in 1977, somewhere at the border between Mexico and the United States. SET There are many hospital or office room-dividers in various stages of disrepair and abandonment, overhead water/heating pipes, plastic bags filled with garbage, several laundry duffel bags, a few old Halloween decorations, and a ramp or step unit, preferably at center upstage, that leads to upstairs. There is a small, cramped rest area for Casimiro's coffee breaks: a small table with a large bowl of Halloween candies and the makings for instant coffee; a small portable TV near an old, beatup recliner covered with a sarape; one or two chairs; and a box filled with a photo, pom-pom, food and drink, flowers, candles, etc., for the altar that Casimiro will set up on the table.